“May we be the bridge and boat to cross the water”: Community-Engaged Research on Metta Meditation

Abstract

Inclusive research is needed to understand how contemplative practices are used by people of diverse identities. Metta meditation--also known as lovingkindness meditation--may be particularly relevant for people committed to equity and justice because of the social nature of the practice. Using community-based participatory research and an intersectional framework, we assessed how people in a diverse meditation community teach and practice metta meditation. In partnership between university researchers and a community-based meditation center, we conducted virtual focus groups on experiences with metta meditation during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We used reflexive thematic analysis to analyze focus group data, with a member checking process to include participant feedback. Forty-seven people participated in six focus groups (mean age 47; 62% LGBTQ+; 23% Asian, 19% Black, 13% Hispanic/Latina/o, 32% White, 24% multi-racial). Qualitative analysis identified three central themes: (1) the importance of a community of practice for creating a sense of belonging (including during the early months of the COVID pandemic), (2) the benefits of metta practice for cultivating compassion and equanimity, 3) the use of metta practice to cope with harmful situations, including individual-level stressors and structural oppression. Metta meditation supported participants in navigating stressors and injustice. Community-based spaces designed to cultivate belonging among diverse communities can support people to connect contemplative practice with their efforts for social change.

Metta meditation is a mindfulness practice that may be of particular interest to people responding to inequity and injustice because of the social nature of the practice. Mindfulness practices have long been used by people living in unjust societies and may help transform damaging effects of oppression at intrapersonal, interpersonal and societal levels (Magee, 2019; Yang, 2017). The Buddhist concept of metta, translated from Pali into English as “lovingkindness,” “loving-friendliness,” and “goodwill,” is defined as expanding outward from one’s own concerns and engaging in universal love and caring toward others (Gunaratana, 2019; Thanissaro, 2013). An inter-related meditation practice is compassion meditation (karuna in Pali), where lovingkindness is cultivated towards people who are suffering. Metta meditation practice typically begins with extending goodwill to oneself, followed by extending it to other beings—a benefactor, a good friend, a neutral person, a person who the meditator finds challenging, and all beings. Metta meditation is a practice of non-judgmental awareness with an intention to increase wellbeing and decrease suffering for all living beings. Metta practice as it has spread throughout popular culture in the U.S. involves the repetition of short phrases such as “May I/you be free from suffering. May I/you be filled with love. May I/you be at peace.” Past research has shown that these structured practices of wishing kindness and well-being towards people who vary in social relationship can increase social connection, positive emotions, and prosocial behavior (Klimecki et al., 2014; Weng et al., 2013). Research on both metta meditation and compassion-focused meditation has found positive effects on the emotions of practitioners. For example, a randomized study of 200 university students found that metta meditation resulted in increased positive emotions, as well as decreased sadness (Sirotina & Shchebetenko, 2020). Other studies have found metta effective in reducing chronic pain, and a combination of metta and compassion practices effective in treating depression, anxiety, and PTSD (Alba, 2013; Graser & Stangier, 2018). Research has found that metta and compassion-based practices increased feelings of social connectedness by shifting the perception of meditation from an individualistic, religious, or relaxation practice toward increased connection with other people. Social connectedness is essential for psychological well-being, and reports of connectedness following metta practice indicate that human contact is not necessarily required to increase one’s subjective sense of connection to humanity (Aspy & Proeve, 2017; Gentile et al., 2020; Trautwein et al., 2016).

Amid the growing use of meditation in the United States (U.S.) for stress reduction, physical and mental health conditions, and performance enhancement (Burke et al., 2017), many meditation settings, as well as much meditation research (DeLuca et al., 2018; Waldron et al., 2018; Weng et al., 2020), reflect and attend to primarily “upper-middle-class, Euro-American” practitioners, meaning that both teachers and students are often white, wealthy, and able-bodied (Razak, 2019: 65; see also Fleming et al 2022 ). Existing research underscores that many Buddhist and secular meditation spaces in the U.S. are exclusionary to people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, people with disabilities and chronic health conditions, and those of low socioeconomic status. For example, Arisika Razak (2019) writes that although many people of color are drawn to Buddhist practices, they may “feel unwelcome in predominantly white Buddhist establishments” due to a number of issues, including absence of other people of color, unfamiliarity with practices or teachings, and a lack of social justice awareness (p. 68). Watson, et. al. (2016) noted that while Black women in her study of meditation appreciated exposure to these practices within a research study, they did not enroll in subsequent classes due to their cost. Since U.S.-based research on meditation has not been representative of overall populations, its generalizability may be limited and, importantly, the experiences of meditators from marginalized groups (e.g., Black people, people with disabilities) have not been well-considered.

Some recent scholarship on Buddhism in the U.S. attends to racism, sexism, sexual orientation and gender identity, connecting the Asian roots of Buddhist practice with the experiences of people of color in the U.S., including people of Asian descent ( Han, 2021), as well as Black, Latine and Native American people (Fleming et al., 2022). Scholars have explored meditation as self-care and collective care practice among people navigating racism-related stress (Gomez et al., 2024; Hwang & Chan, 2019), an approach to anti-racist practice (Shutt, 2023), and a coping strategy for exposure to chronic stress, including gendered racism and subsequent health consequences (Biggers et al., 2020; Watson et al., 2016). Research also emphasizes the need for secular meditation programs to be adapted to the needs of participants’ intersectional identities. For example, Proulx and Bergen-Cico (2022) discuss the use of mindfulness in Native American communities, and point to the need for flexible programs that can be adapted to individual communities. Vesely-Flad’s (2022) recent book explores how Black Buddhists “identified healing racially induced trauma as a motivation for investing in the practices of Buddhism” (p. 1). Many Black participants in her qualitative research combined practices from Asian Buddhist traditions with practices from African and African American wisdom traditions such as drumming, dancing and chanting with the intention of addressing intergenerational trauma and engaging in political practice.

Context and conceptual framework

The perspectives of historically marginalized people must be included in research on contemplative practices—including metta meditation—in spiritual communities, as well as secular settings. Transforming meditation practice and community practice settings requires what bell hooks (2014) referred to as “centering the margins”—that is, evaluating and reorganizing structures from the perspectives of people most harmed by white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. In previous research with East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC; Oakland, CA), our team used community engagement (Wallerstein & Duran, 2010) to develop research more inclusive of people of color, people who are LGBTQIA+, people with disabilities and chronic illness, and people with lower income and education. Our team’s past research formulated “intersectional neuroscience” as a method that utilizes community engagement to create more welcoming and inclusive research processes and facilitate the recruitment of diverse study participants, particularly those with multiple marginalized identities (Weng et al., 2020). This approach aims to embody compassion within research by including perspectives of diverse meditators and sharing resources, including agency within the research process, grant funds, and authorship.

Central concepts in our research include Engaged Buddhism and intersectionality. Engaged Buddhism, a term first used by Thich Nhat Hanh, has long connected meditation practice with action on issues of societal and political concern (Hanh, 2019). Many contemplative practitioners and scholars draw on legacies of engaged Buddhism in applying meditation practices amidst injustice. Intersectionality offers a useful framework to further understand engaged Buddhism and diverse secular meditation spaces. Intersectionality was initially conceptualized by legal scholar Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw (1997), who argued that feminist and anti-racist discourses rarely accounted for how the intersection of racism and patriarchy uniquely shape structural, political, and legal aspects of violence against Black women. Collins (2015) explains intersectionality as a paradigm for understanding how race, class, gender, nationality, sexuality, ethnicity, ability, and age operate as “reciprocally constructing phenomena” and that “oppressions work together in producing injustice” (p. 18). Intersectional approaches illuminate the co-constitutive nature of multiple axes of oppression. For example, a person of color who has a disability may have less access to contemplative spaces and feel socially excluded. Ikeda (2019) suggests that intersectional awareness is compatible with Buddhist teachings, stating that intersecting systems of oppression illustrate the teaching that all beings are interconnected and layered. Core teachers of East Bay Meditation Center view metta practice as one manifestation of Theravadan Buddhism within the politicized context of Engaged Buddhism.

The purpose of this article is to explore how members of a diverse meditation community practice, teach and embody metta meditation, with particular attention to the use of metta to support social justice values, such as buffering against the effects of oppression and mitigating biases.

METHODS

Setting and Recruitment

This study built on an existing community-academic partnership between the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health and East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC). EBMC is a community meditation center located in an urban area that offers programs on mindfulness, spiritual wisdom, and compassion from Buddhist and other spiritual traditions. Principles of unconditional loving-kindness and non-judgmental awareness of inner & outer phenomena have been the communal practices that have informed how EBMC has developed since 2007. EBMC promotes ‘radical inclusivity,’ which is directly related to extending awareness and kindness to all people and all living beings, centering people of color, LGBTQ+ people and people with disabilities. All EBMC programming operates on a dana gift economics model in which participants pay the center and teachers a donation of their choice, reflecting traditional Buddhist practice and EBMC’s commitment to inclusivity across socioeconomic status. Metta practice is one of the most widely taught practices at EBMC, which shaped the decision to focus on it in this study. As in the prior study (Weng et al., 2020), we used principles of community-based participatory research (Wallerstein et al., 2019) to inform study procedures. These included seeking feedback from EBMC community members at multiple stages and paying key EBMC staff as consultants. Two authors were employed by EBMC, while the remainder were affiliated with the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health as faculty members and graduate students. Including study team members with deep contextual knowledge of EBMC was essential for our data collection and analysis.

Study participants were recruited through EBMC’s listserv and social media, using text and images collaboratively chosen by UCSF and EBMC staff. Eligible study participants included anyone involved in EBMC as a teacher or program participant with an active metta meditation practice; all people with a connection to EBMC were invited to participate using low-touch recruitment methods to ensure that participation was voluntary. Most participants were part of Practice Groups (weekly community-led” gatherings of people practicing meditation or mindful movement together” or peer-led Deep Refuge Groups (intended to “provide a safe, intimate, and community-led space” to explore Buddhist spiritual teachings) (East Bay Meditation Center, n.d.). Some of these groups were open to all, and others were identity-based groups. All study procedures were approved by the UCSF IRB.

Procedures

This study was designed before the COVID-19 pandemic, but all data collection procedures were carried out during regional COVID-related restrictions (April – August 2020). To ensure physical safety, all sessions took place via videoconference on the Zoom platform, were recorded, and were professionally transcribed. We offered incentives of $75 in gift card to participants in focus groups or feedback sessions.

We hosted a study overview webinar to introduce the study’s aims and procedures to the EBMC community and elicit feedback. Four EBMC community members provided feedback on a draft of the focus group format and questions. We conducted nine two-hour focus groups: one open to anyone in the EBMC community; two for EBMC-affiliated meditation teachers, and specific focus groups for the following identity-specific sanghas: People of Color, Practice in Transformative Action (a year-long, social justice-focused, secular mindfulness program), Every Body Every Mind (people with disabilities or chronic health conditions), and Alphabet (LGBTQIA+, Two Spirit, and Same-Gender Loving). Each focus group was co-facilitated by two research team members, with an additional researcher providing logistical support (e.g., monitoring the Zoom chat). Focus groups began with a brief study overview, opportunity to ask questions, and verbal consent. We asked each participant to introduce themself (name, location, pronouns) and contribute a metta phrase that they were using in their practice. A focus group facilitator then led a brief metta meditation that included all focus group members’ phrases to promote group cohesion (see Table 3). We then asked a series of focus group questions related to metta practice. Notably, we had anticipated that participants in a specific sangha would have pre-existing relationships with one another. However, the virtual format allowed for inclusion of participants outside of the Bay Area who had begun participating in EBMC events since the COVID-19 pandemic began, as well as people with disabilities who would have had difficulty traveling to an in-person gathering. After the initial focus groups, we invited all participants to a second session to explore whether and how metta practice related to experiences with social identity (including race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status), both in day-to-day interactions and navigating systems of oppression. We offered two follow-up focus groups, one that was open to all who had participated in a previous session and one that specifically for people of color to discuss racism alongside other intersecting identities.

Table 3. EBMC KIND Study metta/lovingkindness phrases.

Each focus group participant and study team member shared one of these phrases at our focus group sessions.

May I feel ease in my body

May you have access to a feeling of safety when you need it

May all beings have access to health

May all beings be free from suffering and causes and conditions of suffering

May all beings live with ease

May we all be happy

You are fine the way you are

May all beings have happiness and health

May you love and be loved well

May you cope well with whatever is in front of you right now

May I have inner and outer safety

May all beings find lasting joy and meaning

May all beings be brave

May I be safe and protected. May all beings be free.

May all beings be well

May we all be safe

May we be attentive and grateful for our own joy and well-being

May everyone be relaxed and safe

May all beings be brave

May everyone be healthy and free from pain

May I be comfortable doing nothing

May all beings be safe and protected from inner and outer harm

May all beings be safe and protected, and live with ease

May all life be held sacred

May my house not catch on fire

May I be happy

May I have ease and happiness

May all beings know liberation

May we be safe and healthy at home

May we be happy and healthy

May we be open-minded and receptive

May we be understanding and fight for justice

May we be kind to ourselves in the struggles we are going through

May all beings be brave

May we take care of ourselves joyfully

May we live at ease and be at ease

May we be safe and protected

May we be safe and well

May we have peace in more moments of our lives

May we all have the power to let go of negative thoughts

May we be free from suffering

May all beings know liberation

May we feel peaceful and joyful

May we have calm and equanimity

May we breathe easily and freely

May we all have time to truly and sincerely listen to our own voice

May we all feel and be healthy

May all beings be loved, protected, and witnessed

May we all find joy in the present moment

May all beings be healthy

May I sit peacefully with my pain. May others sit peacefully with their pain

May we be the bridge and boat to cross the water

Measures

We used a common set of questions across focus groups, making minor edits between sessions based on participant feedback and to facilitate active participation. Questions focused on people’s experiences practicing or teaching metta meditation (where, when, and with whom; phrases and imagery used in practice; emotions and body sensations). Additional questions explored how participants integrated metta practice into daily life, changes in internal experiences or external behavior, and challenges with practice. We asked participants to reflect on their metta practice during times of exacerbated uncertainty such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Questions developed for follow up focus groups included how metta practice related to participants’ identities (e.g., building community around specific identities or coping with experiences of oppression). Because data collection occurred during frequent racial justice protests in summer 2020, we invited participants to discuss the impact of racist violence and ongoing social movements in their lives and meditation practice.

All study participants completed a demographic survey (see Table 1). We used a survey developed in collaboration with EBMC for our past study, in which participants reported both open-ended, self-identified demographics and standardized categories based on NIH guidelines (Weng et al., 2020). This strategy allowed participants to share the ways they personally identify, while also collecting data as it is typically reported in scientific publications.

Table 1.

Participant Characteristics (n=47)

Characteristic	Percent (n)
Metta practice experience, mean years (range)	4.9 (0–15)
Age, mean (range)	46.8 (26–68)
Education
Business/Technical certificate/degree	2.2 (1)
Associate degree	6.5 (3)
Bachelor’s degree	19.6 (9)
Some graduate work	8.7 (4)
Master’s degree	39.1 (18)
Doctoral or professional degree	29.3 (11)
Household Income
< $30,000	23.9 (11)
$30,000 - $49,999	28.3 (13)
$50,000 - $79,999	13.0 (6)
$70,000 - $99,999	13.0 (6)
$100,000 or more	15.2 (7)
Not specified	8.5 (4)
Has a disability or chronic health condition	55.6 (25)

Data Analysis

We used reflexive thematic analysis to analyze focus group data (Braun & Clarke, 2020). Five authors were actively engaged throughout several months of biweekly meetings, with additional input from co-authors and EBMC community members. We began by familiarizing ourselves with the data, concentrating on a single focus group transcript and taking reflective notes, including potential codes. We finalized a list of inductive and deductive codes and systematically coded all transcripts using Dedoose analysis software. Two authors coded each transcript and wrote brief memos with questions for the full analysis team. Once all transcripts were coded, we generated initial themes from coded data, memos, and group discussion.

We invited all focus group participants to a member checking session (Birt et al., 2016) to review and provide feedback on initial themes to improve the accuracy of our analysis. This two-hour session with eight participants was facilitated by two authors and included study updates and discussion of initial themes. We presented a selection of quotes and initial themes, and asked participants, “Does what we are seeing match your experience and perceptions? What do you want to add or correct?” Participants provided additional detail, as well as suggestions about inclusive language related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, and chronic illness.

With this member-checking feedback, additional team discussion, and memo-writing, we defined and named the themes explored in this manuscript. We then hosted a virtual event with the wider EBMC community to present study findings. As part of this event, we presented themes including sample quotes, and sought additional feedback from attendees. Participants gave feedback about the experience of study participation as well as on the themes. For example, attendees with extensive meditation training said it was important not to differentiate between what we were calling “formal” and “informal” metta practice, because Buddhist teachings on the subject do not do so; attendees provided recommendations of language to use instead.

We acknowledge that all researchers approach “data through the lenses of their particular social, cultural, historical, disciplinary, political and ideological positionings” (Braun and Clarke, 2020, p. 12). As a study team we were aware of our own social identities and how they might affect focus group members’ comfort. We constituted our intergenerational research team to include people with a range of professional and personal identities, including varying levels of experience with meditation and qualitative research, as well as diversity in racial and ethnic identities, professional roles, sexual orientation, and experience with chronic health conditions. Our positionality informed all phases of the research process. For example, focus groups for participants of color were facilitated by study team members who themselves are people of color, a decision intended to cultivate emotional comfort.

Strengths & Limitations

The strong partnership between UCSF researchers and EBMC meditators and teachers enabled study design, recruitment, data analysis, demographic reporting, and manuscript preparation to reflect the diverse community involved. Multiple member checking events cultivated community engagement and ensured inclusive interpretation of results. Our virtual focus group format was an effective method overall, but it may not have been accessible to everyone interested in participating. During focus groups, we did not ask people to share their names while speaking. While analyzing transcripts, therefore, we did not always record the broader context for participants’ comments on experiences of oppression and privilege. Future research could make changes to methods, as well as include more focused questions about some of the identity-specific elements in this study, such as experiences of immigration. Recruitment of study participants from a single community-based meditation center allowed for a strong partnership and diverse sample; however, sampling from multiple organizations might yield a wider range of experiences. Finally, longitudinal research on meditation experiences would provide additional depth and nuance.

RESULTS

Forty-seven people with an average of seven years’ experience of metta practice participated in focus groups. Participants had an average age of 47 (range=26–68); 91% had completed a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education; 52% had household income of <$50,000, and 56% reported having a disability or chronic health condition. Participants reported both self-described and standardized reporting categories of race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation (see Tables 1 and 2 for detailed demographics). Using standardized reporting categories, 23% of participants identified as Asian, 19% Black, 13% Hispanic/Latino, 23% multi-racial, and 32% as white. When invited to self-report racial and ethnic identities, many participants shared multiple specific identities, e.g., a list of up to five countries, or three categories such as Black, Asian, and white. We have condensed these into categories to protect individuals’ anonymity. A total of 62% of participants identified their sexual orientation as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or pansexual; 62% of participants identified as female, 13% as male, and 23% another gender identity such as non-binary or trans.

Table 2.

Participant Characteristics, Self-Identified and Standardized Reporting Categories

	Self-Identified Category	Standardized Reporting Category	Percent (n)
Race and ethnicity	Han Chinese, Chinese, Filipinx, Korean American, Punjabi-Indian, Vietnamese	Asian	23.4 (11)
	African American, Black, Jamaican, Haitian, Choctaw	Black or African American	19.1 (9)
	White, Caucasian, white/European American; Irish, Eastern European, English, Italian, Luxembourg Scandinavian, German, Scotch	White	3.19 (15)
	Puerto Rican, Latinx of African descent, white; Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Polynesian, Mexican, Indigenous, Italian; Native, Mexican; Asian, Mexican, Indigenous, Polynesian, Italian; Yoruba, Sicilian, Irish	Multiracial, Hispanic/Latinx	12.8 (6)
	Black, White & Asian; Black, native, white; Multiracial Brazilian; South African-American; Eritrean American	Multiracial, non-Hispanic/Latinx	10.6 (5)
	Middle Eastern	Other	2.1 (1)
Gender	cisgender female or female, fe, femme of center, woman/womxn	Female	61.7 (29)
	male, cismale, queer	Male	12.8 (6)
	Gender creative; Genderqueer, gender nonconforming, or non-binary; Trans	Another identity	23.4 (11)
	Not sure	Not specified	2.1 (1)
Sexual Orientation	Fluid, Lesbian, Pansexual, Queer	Lesbian/Gay/Homosexual	26.7 (12)
	Bisexual, Pansexual, Queer	Bisexual/Pansexual	37.8 (17)
	Heterosexual, Straight	Straight/Heterosexual	38.2 (18)

Our findings focus on three central, interconnected themes: 1) the importance of a community of practice for creating a sense of belonging, including during the early months of the COVID pandemic; 2) metta practice as a way of cultivating compassion and equanimity; and 3) The use of metta practice to cope with harmful situations, including individual-level stressors and structural oppression.

Community of Practice and Belonging

Teachers who participated in this study noted that East Bay Meditation Center’s long-standing identity-based practice groups offer them a space to tailor Buddhist teachings to diverse audiences. In addition to shared meditation practice, many EBMC participants volunteer for specific roles within EBMC and contribute to organization-wide policies and practices. For example, the Every Body Every Mind sangha developed EBMC’s fragrance-free policy, which encourages the consideration of people with sensitivities to chemicals in scented products when gathering in person. This reflects EBMC’s commitment to encourage community collaboration and, at an organizational level, to understand and adapt to the needs of its members.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, EBMC groups were exclusively offered in person and typically attended by consistent groups of people. The COVID-19 pandemic led EBMC, like many organizations, to rapidly adapt, shifting from in-person to virtual programming. This change to online programming made practice groups available to new participants nationally and globally, as well as to local residents who could previously not attend in person due to health issues, caregiving responsibilities, disability, or lack of access to transportation. As a result, the community expanded: during 2020, enrollment in EBMC programs increased by >50%, and participants joined from multiple U.S. states and internationally.

Study participants appreciated the increased accessibility of virtual programming, such as the availability of ASL interpretation and closed captioning that was added to EBMC’s online programs. One study participant who lived outside of California shared, “I was diagnosed with cancer…and I really didn’t know what to do to calm down…I knew I needed some grounding; I needed some calmness to calm my mind...My mind was just constantly going, going, going, going. Then I found EBMC on Zoom.” These new possibilities for connection through virtual programming were meaningful for people with varied access needs in and outside of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Study participants had a wide range of experiences during the early months of the pandemic: many struggled financially, emotionally, and otherwise; some found increased access to support including the EBMC virtual community. Some study participants described how online programming importantly expanded their access to people with shared identities. One explained,

in the meditation culture [where I live], there aren’t many racial mirrors for me. But through Zoom, I’ve been able to be on and participate through guided meditations and Dharma talks with hundreds of other Black and African and other people of color, Indigenous folks, which has been really a beautiful, amazing, invigorating sight.”

Participants described meditation practice groups, especially those built around specific identities and widely accessible due to virtual programming, as important community spaces, and EBMC teachers and members adapted metta meditation and teaching with close consideration of lived experiences and identities. Identity-based practice groups cultivated spaces for exploration of Buddhist teachings as they connected to positionality and ways to be involved in social action.

Study participants who were EBMC teachers spoke about how their work with practice groups both allowed and required them to tailor metta meditation to the specific experiences of people participating in practice groups. One participant who teaches programs for white people with the goal of examining and responding to white supremacy articulated the value of addressing “this conditioning that we’ve grown up with,” highlighting the importance of confronting the systems of racism, ableism, and other forms of oppression in which all people live. Another teacher explained how metta can be paired with trauma informed practices to support the community they advocate for and work with:

I’m often teaching in the trans community and folks have a lot of trauma, and in my experience, the practice of lovingkindness is the most trauma-informed, inherently trauma-informed piece of the teachings as I’ve received them. Often focusing on the breath and other awareness practices just aren’t accessible for folks with trauma.

Many people described identity-based practice groups as welcoming and nurturing for people whose identities are often marginalized in other contemplative practices and environments. The rapid, COVID-induced changes in programming were largely acceptable to meditators who cited the benefits of accessibility and identity congruence. Participants explained that practicing meditation in community was a helpful tool for coping with the effects of isolation resulting from physical distancing through the pandemic. Notably, the expanded virtual sangha invited new members to benefit from community and supportive meditation practice at a time of complex and prolonged stress that was compounded by political turmoil and racism, including the police killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. During the pandemic, EBMC’s programming further adapted to address increasing anti-Asian American violence in the U.S. Participants experiencing varied levels of stress and uncertainty shared that they adapted their metta practice to the circumstances of COVID-19, police violence and resulting widespread protests, and individual challenges. Although there were some downsides to the influx of new participants and lack of shared physical space, the accessibility and affinity group benefits, plus a shared commitment to social justice, contributed to overarchingly positive experiences with virtual community.

Metta and the Cultivation of Compassion and Equanimity

Many study participants discussed increased compassion and equanimity that resulted from their metta practice. Reflecting on these as outcomes of metta meditation, study participants described compassion, whether directed toward the self or others, as a sense of gentleness, kindness, or empathy. Metta was frequently described by teachers and meditators as a particularly accessible practice, and one whose language could be easily adapted to align with people’s lived experiences. One participant with a disability shared how metta practice supported their efforts for disability justice. They explained that metta meditation allowed them “to get out of that mindset of…the desire to fix things, the desire to cure, the desire to heal, the desire to make things right. I think especially for people with disabilities to wish ourselves happiness without wishing to be different than we are, it’s really very fundamental and very important.”

Participants described equanimity as being able to achieve balance, holding seemingly contradictory emotions at once or increasing their tolerance in difficult situations. One participant said, “The practice really has, for me, been a refuge, and allowed me to imagine myself or my being as a container large enough to handle paradoxical emotions. Emotions that I thought were mutually exclusive, so to hold joy and sadness at the time, hope and despair at the same time, etc.” Though some participants discussed compassion and equanimity separately, other described them as interconnected, with deepening compassion promoting greater equanimity.

Teachers encouraged meditators to draw on metta in neutral situations in daily life. One explained, “If I’m washing the dishes, I will send metta phrases to everybody else on the planet who’s washing dishes then, or whatever else I happen to be doing, taking a shower or watering plants, just to include everyone else who may be doing that.” Many participants practice metta spontaneously throughout the day in brief moments. This spontaneous practice was known by some as “stealth metta,” (a term that one participant brought from another meditation community, Soma Dharma). Most study participants lived in urban areas, and many described using metta when they observed people who were struggling in public. As one person described, “I do a lot of stealth metta with homeless people, and it feels like I’m doing a lot more lately as the number of people in San Francisco living on the streets and in tents increases through the pandemic.” Multiple participants described stealth metta as a kind of compassion in action. Compassion in action, whether by “stealth metta” or in other forms, was central to the utility of metta meditation for study participants. For example, some described metta as a tool to better understand and work with their complicated experiences in relationships with others, finding deeper self-compassion in challenging relationships while striving to cultivate compassion for other people. One participant shared:

I have a complicated relationship with practicing [metta] with people who have more privileged identities because I already feel, I think particularly as a woman, that there’s always pressure to understand other people and be really kind be open-minded, forgiving and all that…It’s a sticky space in my practice where I do want to generate compassion, but I also feel like sometimes not trying to take on that compassion towards white men or whoever it might be, is an act of compassion towards myself.

This example illustrates how metta supports real-life challenges, providing a framework and practice to grapple with complex situations and cultivate self-compassion and equanimity amidst seemingly conflicting emotions. Similarly, participants cited metta as a coping tool through traumatic or otherwise painful experiences. In one participant’s words:

I’ve used metta to deal with traumatic content that arises in my body. So, every day, when I lock my doors of my car or my front door, I’m wishing safety and protection for everybody. And that comes from growing up where I grew up. I was always just terrified of violence. And then just out in the street as an anxiety management tool, or if I’m in front of somebody where there’s a lot of intensity, I’m wishing that they be safe and protected and that I’m safe and protected. And at home…I’m sending metta to the water, and to my cat, and to my partner... so that it turns into a gratitude practice, and then it helps me come back to the present.

This person and others used metta meditation to support themselves when distressed or suffering. As exemplified above, metta often bolstered meditators through discomfort while also promoting gratitude or reconnection with others in their lives.

Study participants sometimes drew on their metta practice in conflicts, including those in which they were harmed by others or facing violence. One person of color described a challenging interaction with a white person at a racial justice protest they attended just before the focus group. This participant was happy with their own role in the interaction and said that “lovingkindness practice really just allows me to be very firm and clear, but also compassionate at the same time.” Another person used a metta chant: “May even acts of harm help the violent awaken. May they all come to know each and every joy.” They shared their experience extending metta in this way, saying, “Recently when I was chanting that I started to cry, and so I think this chant helped me get in touch with some compassion that’s already there for those who are the most violent.”

The development of self-compassion and compassion toward others through metta practice included experiences of equanimity, which some described as a process of letting go. Participants described increased awareness of times when they were holding tightly onto experiences and then successfully disrupting this—or letting go—during metta practices to achieve a more neutral or accepting state of being. Participants described this as a feeling of floating, flowing, or being “rock steady whatever the situation is.” One participant explained equanimity as,

A buoy out in the middle of the ocean, which in big waves is going to go all the way to the side, but it’s going to right itself. So, it’s not that in the face of extreme suffering, you’re able to sit still and kind of meditate in the middle. No, you’re affected by the suffering. But you aren’t pulled and gripped and three days later, you’re still not thinking about all of that suffering. You have resourced and you’re back to center.

Another person put it plainly, saying, “All the things that seemed really upsetting to me before seemed much less upsetting after [metta meditation].” For study participants, metta was a practice to cultivate compassion and actively extend well-wishes to the self and others.

Metta and Navigating Injustice

A final theme involves study participants’ use of metta as a practice to actively cope with effects of systemic oppression and injustice, including racism. Many participants were either a part of social justice networks (e.g., attended protests) or professionally involved in social justice initiatives. Multiple participants noted that their metta practiced supported them in arriving at conflicts or working with people in social justice organizing contexts with more compassion and with an overall sense of greater equanimity or the ability to balance many strong emotions. For example, one Black participant articulated the importance of their contemplative practice, including metta, to reduce the chronic stress of racism. They explained,

I’ve come to this realization that for me, at least, walking through this world in a Black body is just really stressful, and I’m on alert a lot. I am…trying to diffuse situations ahead of time so that other people are comfortable, so that my physical body is not at harm or at risk. And taking time each day to just sit and be still and allowing myself to fall into parasympathetic nervous system…gives me a break.

For this participant and others, metta practice facilitates a meaningful pause from the hypervigilance of living in a racist society. In metta practice, study participants also engaged with ancestors, spiritual guides, or other sources of inspiration. Several participants described holding the memory of deceased leaders such as John Lewis or Harriet Tubman, while others connected with a general vision of ancestral spirits. Participants highlighted this as a helpful way to feel belonging and guidance while practicing metta in the face of injustice.

Many study participants described metta as something they “drop into” or otherwise draw on to help communicate when dealing with microaggressions and other forms of oppression. One Asian participant shared that someone recently asked if they were “eating with sticks. I said, ‘You mean chopsticks? Yes, those are utensils that I eat with.’ And so [that person is] a part of that group that I try to [extend] lovingkindness [to]…and because of my metta practice I think I had taken a deep breath and just kind of slowed myself [after that comment].” This participant illustrated a two-part response to coping with microaggressions that multiple people used: first, drawing from metta practice to “slow down” in situations that could otherwise evoke reactivity, then over time incorporating the other person into their lovingkindness meditation.

Metta meditation also expanded participants’ capacity to consider others’ actions within broader systems. One such example was shared by a person living with chronic health conditions who experienced frequent “ableist microaggressions:”

I definitely feel a lot of hurt and anger and that does not really go away at all with lovingkindness practice…but I do feel I’m able to hold both that hurt and anger of my own, and also the other people I identify as responsible for it, in a space of compassion when I do lovingkindness practice. I’m able to see that it’s not so much them being bad or mean people as we’re shaped by these systems that we don’t have control over. I feel I’m able to address the harm [inflicted by others] …trying to liberate both of us from a system that is doing all of us harm.

Practicing metta helped this study participant and others to meaningfully consider the many ways people are impacted by and need liberation from systems of oppression.

Participants’ metta practice was adaptive and did not bypass their experiences or contrive positive feelings. Some participants struggled to extend metta toward “agents of oppression,” for example, and viewed metta meditation as essential to grappling with such tensions while maintaining personal integrity. One participant explained,

An intention is to believe in goodness and to believe in love, and these things that it’s very easy to become cynical about and doubt--especially as a person of color in the world or experiencing different oppressions. There’s so much anger and outrage and that’s 100% valid. And I’m usually not able to practice lovingkindness towards agents of oppression, but it’s still setting my mind up with that intention of love and understanding, even if I can’t access it for everyone.

Another participant explained this challenge in their metta practice. They said, “the more challenging aspects of lovingkindness practice I have found more recently are the more difficult people, including the people I don’t know. It’s very hard for me to think about extending lovingkindness to the police officer who killed George Floyd.” One strategy to deal with this challenge in metta meditation involved study participants’ use of different metta phrases for people they experienced as challenging. For example, rather than using a phrase like “may you be happy,” one participant said, “when I think about [challenging people] or when it’s harder to send metta, I just wish that there’s no harm being done to them.” Many participants accepted that they may not have the capacity to extend metta to all people. In these instances, they used metta meditation to work with this tension, offering themselves compassion and acceptance. In multifaceted ways, study participants showed how they leveraged lovingkindness practice to cope with and navigate discriminatory experiences and systems of oppression.

Discussion

Our findings explore diverse meditators’ experiences practicing and teaching metta during early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and highly visible social movements for racial justice, in a community-based organization grounded in Engaged Buddhism and intersectionality. While research on metta has generally focused on individual experiences within fairly homogenous groups, we draw on a diverse participant sample and situate individual experiences in a community of practice. We find that metta practice within an in-person and then virtual community facilitated a sense of belonging for people with a wide range of identities, including during a time of physical isolation. Additionally, we describe how metta practice supported the cultivation of compassion and equanimity. Participants in our study discussed how metta helped them become less reactive and have greater capacity to face and respond to injustice. For example, some described working through complex and challenging relationships with support from their metta practice. We see the structure of East Bay Meditation Center and the process of our community-academic research partnership as efforts shaped by individual and collective metta practice. Metta and mindfulness meditation have been essential elements of EBMCs core organizing principles as well as the programming. One of EBMCs core tenants is “radical inclusivity” which requires extending awareness and kindness to all people and all living beings as a spiritual practice coupled to a political goal of inclusivity and equity. As a collaborative partnership using community-engaged methods, our study team practiced metta meditation with research participants at the start of focus group sessions and in research team meetings, and included participant feedback at all stages of the research. We recruited a diverse group of participants, and invited participants to self-identify their sociodemographic characteristics, including race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation (see Table 2). All people have intersecting identities, and it is important that researchers seek increasingly accurate ways of describing study populations.

Our findings point to the benefits of gathering in identity-based groups, in which people benefit from metta as a universal practice while cultivating a sense of safety, dignity and belonging (Haines, 2019). Study participants included people who identified as activists, advocates, community organizers, and non-profit leaders, who described metta practice as supportive of their work towards a more just society. Participants continually highlighted the importance of adapting meditation teaching for people who are often underrepresented in United States meditation spaces while acknowledging that individuals’ identities are provisional and exist in relation to broader causes and conditions. Ikeda (2019) states that transformative racial justice in Buddhist settings requires that teachers model ways to directly address racism, privilege, and oppression. Vesely-Flad (2017) notes that centering the margins by including Black Buddhist teachers and instructors in meditation spaces also helps create inclusive spaces for LGBTQIA+ identity within Buddhist communities. In other words, teachers acknowledging their own intersectional identities can increase access to meditation for marginalized people and, ultimately, all beings. Without keen awareness of intersectionality and commitment to social justice, many meditation communities in the U.S. fall short of providing the refuge they promise, especially for people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, low-income communities, and people with disabilities (Razak, 2019). For many participants, EBMC programs evoked a feeling of “I belong here,” for reasons ranging from teachers and practitioners who shared people’s identity to receiving Buddhist teachings in ways that reflected their experiences and needs.

Scholars of Engaged Buddhism have asked how Buddhists in capitalist societies can find the time to cultivate communities of practice (Rothberg, 1992). We suggest that an inclusive approach with communities of practice may be a model for doing so in the U.S. context. Vesely-Flad suggests that Buddhist spaces intended to provide support and community to practitioners can often perpetuate racism and oppression, particularly if they consist of predominantly white sanghas (2017: 248). Conversely, meditation spaces that acknowledge and center intersectional identities are essential to creating inclusive spaces for diverse meditators. Including contemplative practices from multiple traditions can be especially supportive for individual and community healing (Vesely-Flad, 2022). This allows sangha members to experience a greater sense of belonging and safety that can facilitate participation in efforts for justice as well as personal transformation.

The community organization in this study experienced participation from a much wider geographic area due to the shift to virtual programming. While there was some loss due to the lack of shared physical space, study participants reflected positively on how virtual programming allowed people to engage in relevant and meaningful communities of practice at a stressful and isolating time. Teachers and staff adapted to reflect the tumultuous conditions of society and its impact on community members. This included creating programs that addressed anxiety and fear related to COVID-19 physical distancing and events to support Asian American and Black communities in the face of ongoing systemic oppression and increased violence.

Our findings suggest that metta meditation not only increases positive emotions, as previous research has found (Sirotina & Shchebetenko, 2020), but also supports the capacity to experience emotions of all kinds, including multiple conflicting emotions, while cultivating equanimity. Participants in this study found great support in metta meditation, including spontaneous metta practices and responses to harmful interactions. For some, practicing spontaneously is easier to sustain than a seated meditation practice, and it is reflective of Buddhist teachings that encourage practice “all through one’s waking hours” and extending metta to all beings (Buddharakkhita, 2013). “Stealth metta,” as some study participants called it, is spontaneous practice key to cultivating compassion and equanimity. It was a favored form of practice among participants who described its meaningful cultivation of compassion for the self and others, including strangers, and equanimity in challenging interactions, including microaggressions.

Mindfulness practitioners and researchers have pointed to the potential of meditation for supporting collective healing and liberation (Fleming et al., 2022; Watson et al., 2016), as well as individual physical and mental health (Proulx et al., 2018; Woods-Giscombe et al., 2019). Writing about individual health benefits, Watson and colleagues (2016) analyze how the “Strong Black Woman” trope can affect Black women’s ability to express stress and difficult emotions and suggests that meditation “may equip African American women to engage in behaviors that mitigate the effects of gendered race-related stress” (p. 1035). Recent work focused on collective healing through Buddhist contemplative practice includes May We Gather, a series of memorial gatherings and pilgrimages in response to “racial, religious and gender violence” that aims to “recover, commemorate, and celebrate Asian American Buddhist history and strengthen the ties of kinship that connect us all” (May We Gather Collective, 2024). East Bay Meditation Center teachers also spoke to the practice of metta as cultivating an attitude of universal friendliness, a direct antidote for violence and hatred. Therefore, metta can be considered to be the equivalent of ahimsa, non-harm and non-violence as practices. Our findings include the role of metta practice in creating inner experiences of non-violence, which has supported individuals in contributing to larger social movements for nonviolence. Examples of social movement participants involved in metta practice include Dalit social movements in India (Senauke, n.d.), and at the time of our research, the Black Lives Matter movement in the US (Movement for Black Lives, 2016).

This research may inform future community-academic partnerships focused on metta meditation and related contemplative practices, based in Buddhism and other wisdom traditions. Future research that follows individual meditators over time, or follows the development of community practice settings, would be able to more closely observe how metta practice may contribute to societal change. It may also help guide the development of meditation programs engaging diverse communities and contribute to interventions that focus on collective healing in response to systemic oppression. Our findings demonstrate how commitment to inclusivity, diverse teachers, and community-led practice groups create an atmosphere in which practitioners connect meditation with their efforts to navigate injustice at the individual level and participate in ongoing social and environmental justice movements. Engaged Buddhism and intersectionality are foundational organizing concepts that can be integrated into the structure of diverse meditation communities to promote belonging and counteract. Meditators practice metta in dynamic ways, including during times of crisis.

Policy relevance:

Our findings point to the value of contemplative practices to mitigate stressors resulting from exposure to injustice, as well as the accessibility implications of virtual, community-based practice, and benefits of cultivating identity-based contemplative practice groups.